MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER
The flowers of history, especially such as relate to the affairs of Britain. Vol. I. B.C. 4004 to A.D. 1066.
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year the body of the holy Iuon, bishop and confessor, was found not far from the monastery of Ramsey, on the twentythird o f April. And as the abbot of Ramsey heard of this discovery, without evincing any respect for it, he was severely punished.
A.D.
1002. King Ethelred, by the advice of his nobles, paid the Danes a tribute of twenty-four thousand pounds for the benefit of peace. The same year, iEdulf, archbishop of York, took the remains of the holy archbishop Oswald out of this sepulchre, and on the fourteenth of April placed them with all honours in a tomb which he had prepared for them. And not long afterwards, the same archbishop being removed from this life, was succeeded by Wolstan, bishop of Worcester, and Wolstan was succeeded in the church of Worcester by Leoff.
A.D.
1003. Ethelred, king of England, gave the dukedom of Mercia to a traitor, called Eadric, sumamed Streon, who had acquired the king's favour not by his nobleness, but by his riches. For he was a wicked man, the lowest of the people, the disgrace of the English, double-tongued, cunning, a betrayer of secrets, skilful in dissembling, prompt at feigning, and as often as he was sent to the enemy as a mediator of peace, he only kindled war. But all these matters will be mentioned hereafter. Likewise, in this year Wiliric, a man of great sanctity and authority, considering the future and providing for himself, is recorded to have founded a noble monastery at Burton, on the river Trent, and to have endowed it with large possessions.
A.D.
1004. John became pope of Rome, and filled that chair for five years. This year the Danes, with unheard-of cruelty, broke out again, covering the whole of England like locusts, plundering every place, and putting men to death, nor was any one found who dared to encounter the enemy.
A.D.
1005. Such a grievous famine attacked England, as no man remembered ever to have experienced. The same year, Henry obtained the empire of the Romans, and reigned twentytwo years.
A.D.
1006. Siricius, archbishop of Canterbury, died, and jElpheg, bishop of Winchester succeeded him. The same year, the treacherous duke Eadric invited the noble duke Athelstan to a great entertainment which he had prepared at Shrewsbury, and when Athelstan arrived there upon this invi

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